Artist Loui Jover—for creating the gorgeous illustration for the cover.
Elizabeth Casal—for capturing the essence of The Lovely Reckless in a book cover that takes my breath away every time I look at it.
Barbara Bakowski, my copyeditor—for catching all of my mistakes and fixing them.
Writers House, my literary agency—for representing me and The Lovely Reckless. Special thanks to: Cecilia de la Campa, my foreign rights agent, for sharing her excitement about this book with sub-agents and publishers all over the world; and Alec Shane, for answering the same questions over and over and pretending I didn’t ask them before.
Kassie Evashevski, my rock star film agent at UTA—for your intelligence, passion, and innovative thinking. But most of all, for championing this book and everything I write.
My foreign publishers—for sharing The Lovely Reckless with readers in other countries. Merci. Grazie. Danke. Obrigado …
Margaret Stohl and Holly Black, my friends and extraordinary YA authors—for talking me into taking a leap of faith to write the contemporary book I kept telling you about. Margie, thanks for always knowing when to push and for believing I could do this before I believed it myself. Holly, thank you for sitting in my living room late one night and making me write down my ideas for this book, and for reading the draft and giving me notes after I did.
Carrie Ryan and Rachel Caine, my friends, writing gurus, and two of the most talented authors writing today—for reading and re-reading my draft and giving me revision notes that made a huge difference. Thanks for always taking my calls.
Lauren Billings and Christina Hobbs, my friends and superstar romance writers—for the constant encouragement and the early read to make sure there was enough kissing.
Erin Gross and Yvette Vasquez, my “think tank”—for always having the answers, cheering me on, and yelling at me when cheering doesn’t work. You are two of my best friends.
Chloe Palka, my social media assistant—for your social media expertise and creativity and for typing my messy handwritten chapters. You are the Mother of Dragons (and books).
Vilma Gonzalez, my friend, for your advice and enthusiasm. You rock.
Jennifer L. Armentrout, Holly Black, Cora Carmack, Kresley Cole, Abbi Glines, Colleen Hoover, Marie Lu, Tahereh Mafi, Richelle Mead, Katie McGarry, Jamie McGuire, Alyson No?l, Carrie Ryan, Anna Todd, my friends and a group of authors whose novels I adore—for offering quotes for The Lovely Reckless. I cannot thank you enough.
John Racca, my stepfather and a retired police officer from the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department—for teaching me “critical life skills” that I ended up needing, and for the years you spent as a plainclothes police officer chasing down real car thieves in Auto Squad.
David Stein, automotive aficionado—for sharing your knowledge of auto mechanics, muscle cars, and fast driving to correct my mistakes. You are the real “Chief.”
Bobby Duncan—for answering my questions about street racing and RPMs.
Vania Stoyanova, my friend and photographer—for making me look cool in all my author photos, especially the one for this book.
Lorissa Shepstone of Being Wicked, my graphic designer—for designing my amazing new author website, along with postcards, bookmarks, business cards, and swag.
Eric Harbert and Nick Montano, my attorney and brand manager—for being the guys who watch my back and protect me. You are brilliant and badass, my favorite combination.
Alan Weinberger, my rheumatologist—for making sure that my knees survive tours and events.
Librarians, teachers, booksellers, bloggers, bookstgrammers, booktubers, and everyone who helped spread the word—your passion for reading and love of books is an inspiration. You work, often for little or no money, to inspire a love of reading in others and you have been so kind to me over the years. Thank you for reading my books and sharing this ride with me.
My readers—for supporting me, following me when I write a new book or series, encouraging me on social media, forcing your friends to read my books, sending me letters and fan art, and sharing your stories with me. You bring my books to life.
Mom, Dad, Celeste, John, Derek, Hannah, Alex, Hans, Sara, and Erin, my parents, step-parents, siblings, and sister-in-laws—for your love, encouragement, and excitement. Thank you for always being there.
Alex, Nick, and Stella—for giving me stories to tell and the time it takes to write them. You give up so much for me to do this. I hope you know how much I love you.